Heirs
by frecleface
Summary: When mysterious people start appearing in places they shouldn't, the Loonatics investigate, only to find themselves spiraling into their weirdest adventure yet!
1. Tourists

On a starlit winter night, when the moon is shining bright and the howling wind pierces one's ears, what better way to spend an evening than watching cartoons? But as everyone knows, getting a hold on good old fashioned cartoons is a little hard in the year 2773, which means that if anyone were to come across any, they would be very lucky to be able to see such high quality stuff.

Therefore, two brothers knew exactly what they were doing when they just sat about in their living room, watching the most recent cartoon they had started to like. They sat in separate chairs, with a coffee table between them, and looked at the huge screen in front of them, admiring what they were seeing.

"You gotta admit, they do have style," said one.

"True, very true," said the other. "But I still like to think that the coyote is the best."

The first one scoffed. "Are you kidding?" he exclaimed and rose a bit in his seat. "Rev is way cooler than he'll ever be!"

"Hey! We promised we wouldn't fight about favorites tonight!" the second one warned, and waved a finger at his brother. "Remember, we're here to look for some trivia!"

His brother folded his arms and plumped down in his chair, frowning. "Yeah, well… we've only been watching this for about a week, and I for one still haven't found anything that interesting…"

"Just relax, bro," said the other. "I'm certain that we'll see a light some day."

"Some day… Some day… Dude, that's what you said years ago, and we still haven't found any that are like us!" The first brother was beginning to raise his voice, getting a little angry with that reminder.

"Look, I'm not the one in charge of what happens in the world, okay?" the other one replied. "All I'm saying is that we _will_ find them some day, and that's a promise."

"_That's what you say all the time!_" the first one yelled and expanded his arms to show off his minor rage. He then dropped them back again, one landing safely in his lap; but the other sharply on the coffee table between the brothers. It hit the remote control that was lying there, which caused the program they were watching to skip a large amount of scenes.

"_Now_ look what you did!" said the second one and rose in his seat to reach for the remote. He had just picked it up when his brother suddenly gasped. He looked up. "What now?"

The other brother just stared at the screen with wide eyes, and then slowly, shakily pointed at what he was seeing. "L- Look…"

The second brother rolled his eyes to the screen, and almost dropped the remote when he saw what was making his brother so shocked. The two of them stared at the screen for the longest time, both wearing the exact same shocked expression.

Luckily, it was a final scene of an episode, so when it faded out, they managed to get out of the staring fit. They both blinked a few times to moist their eyes, and then shook their heads. They looked at each other, and then both shot up from their chairs.

"We found something!" they both exclaimed at each other, dancing around the living room like a bunch of wackos.

"How could we have missed it?" the second brother stated and slapped his forehead. "It's been right in front of our eyes this whole time!"

"Took us long enough, right?" the first one had to comment, and then punched the air in excitement. "Oh man! After all those years, we finally found something worth our trip!"

"And what a discovery it is…" said the second one, and turned the television screen off. "The Loonatics… are practically coven copies of the Looney Tunes…"

* * *

**HEIRS**

**Chapter 1 – Tourists**

Beauty is pain.

Whoever thought of that phrase had to have been in Lexi's steps at least once. Being a superhero, with all the crime fighting, butt kicking, and battling that follows, while still trying to be a pretty little bunny really was a major pain. Sadly, having to be on a team, which almost only consisted of boys, kept reminding her of it.

"Speaking of a reminder…" Lexi said out loud to herself as she found yet another bloodstain on her fur. She had been in the shower for at least half an hour, and the blood from the giant blood beetle they had been fighting still hadn't come off. Once again, Lexi rubbed and scrubbed her whole body, trying to get rid of any trace of it.

Finally, when she was certain that all the blood had come off, she turned the water off, and watched it go down the drain for a moment, along with the blood she had just washed out. She shook her head and ran a hand up her face, and down her ears. They immediately sprung back up to their normal position. She opened the shower door and stepped out, water still dripping from her wet feet. She picked up the towel she had prepared, and started drying her body and face.

Lexi had a look at herself in the mirror, and couldn't help but snort at the sight of her fur being all wet and flat. Luckily, she was the only one who ever saw her like that – and ever would. She kept drying her fur, rubbing the towel on all wet places on her body.

"Well, now that that's over…" she said as she threw the towel on the floor, and reached for her clothes. As much as she liked the latex Loonatics suits, she preferred to dress in casual wear. After all, that was the only way she could show off her real blonde fur. When she was done dressing, she had one last look at herself in the mirror, and blew a kiss at her reflection.

"Lookin' good as always, Bunny!" she said and chuckled. She then unlocked the bathroom door, making it open up when the sensor felt her walk over it. Brushing some hair from her eyes, she began walking into the living room, where the boys seemed to be arguing over what had just happened. All of them were already clean and dressed, and they were holding up their usual latex suits for one another, talking about something.

"I still say Rev's the one who should pay for the new suits," Duck commented, his flat bill giving a little smirk at the blue roadrunner standing beside him.

"Who? Me?" Rev replied in his usual fast-talking way. "Why should I do it? I mean, it's not like I had anything to do with us getting caught up in that stupid beetle fight, and just so you know the minor details of this case, Duck, it was Ace's idea to go out to fight it!" Rev gave the team leader a look, though not letting go of his slightly hurt expression from Duck's comment.

"Hey, I just did what Zadavia told us to do!" said Ace. "Besides, Tech's the one who blew it to smithereens! I think that's basically what made it gush so much." Ace's eyes trailed over to the coyote sitting in the sofa, still somewhat examining his suit.

"Don't look at me, chief," he said, not taking his eyes off his own suit. "Slam's the one who wanted to 'smash the bug'."

The large Tasmanian devil pouted and folded his big arms, and grunted something totally incoherent, though the word 'duck' was unmistakably there. Lexi couldn't help but crack a small grin at the sight of her teammates. She couldn't remember the last time they had been blaming each other in circles, but she knew that she loved when they did it. It was one of the many funny things about those boys.

"What's all this racket about, guys?" she asked as she walked to the scene, pretending that she hadn't witnessed what had just happened.

Ace turned around to face her, still holding his torn suit. "Oh, not much," he said and shrugged. "We were just discussing who's gonna be the one to pay for the new suits. I mean, they're pretty much unusable right now…"

"You don't say…" Duck said sarcastically. He then threw his suit away and plumped down on the yellow sofa, making Tech jolt a bit upwards to the sudden movement. "Well, I for one am not picking up my wallet for something like this. I have better use for my cash."

No one even bothered to ask Duck what he'd rather do with the little amount of money he had; mostly because they knew he'd just reply with some witty comment like: "You really don't want to know." Instead, the whole team joined Duck's lazy move and sat down on the long sofa (by that time, Tech had given up on examining his suit). They all threw their mangy suits away and sighed, equally glad that the fight with the blood beetle was over.

"Have you guys noticed how ridiculous our enemies have become?" Lexi had to say, just to break the silence that was starting to form.

"What do you mean by that?" Ace asked.

"Oh, well, you know," said Lexi, and started counting on her fingers. "First there was the snot-dragon; then there was the big talking skeleton; then the huge octopuses; then a giant fire-breathing pair of scissors; and now this blood beetle!" She lowered her hands and raised an eyebrow at the boys. "I mean, seriously. I feel like I'm in a silly kids' cartoon with a bad writing department."

Tech chuckled. "She does have a point, you know," he said, and relaxed his arms on the back of the sofa. "Normally, we'd be fighting something pretty sinister, like, say, a mind-controlling alien; or an evil mastermind planning to take over the universe; but all we get nowadays are some cheesy one-shot monsters."

"Yeah, I wonder what's up with that," said Ace and scratched his head. "You don't suppose all the bad guys have given up on us? Or they finally realized that we're better. Or maybe…" Ace's eyes almost glowed, "Maybe they're all staying in a little secret hideout planning to attack us all at the same time!" As serious as this sentence was, Ace's voice actually had a sound of excitement in it.

"Heck no!" Rev exclaimed. "I for one think that even if they were planning something like that, they'd let us know first by sending a subliminal message, or warning us with something; I mean, they are our worst enemies, right? Not just some, if I may use the same phrase, cheesy one-shot monsters that are always pretty easy to beat. Nope, I think that even if they've been hiding out in the shadows lately, they're each trying to come up with a diabolical plan of their own on how to destroy us."

"Thank you mister optimistic," said Duck and clapped sarcastically. Rev gave him a small glare, but didn't say anything back.

"But think about it," said Ace, who still sounded a bit excited. "What if they're all gathered in one place, and combining their powers to get back on us? That'd be one heck of a battle!"

Slam let out a laugh, but Lexi frowned. "Ace, you're saying that like it's a good thing."

"Well, maybe it is," said Ace and smiled wide. "Even if they'd joined forces, we'd still be unbeatable! We've been improving a _lot_ lately, so I think we'd be ready for them any day!"

Lexi rolled her eyes, smiling. Ace was a great leader, and supportive of his teammates, but when he got into gear, he really lost it sometimes. Yet, there was always something about that glow in his eyes when he talked about something that involved action…

Suddenly, bright light filled the room, and a familiar voice echoed around it. Lexi snapped out of her thoughts and joined the boys in looking in the light's direction. "A job well done with the blood beetle, Loonatics," said Zadavia, who had just called on the hologram. "Although blowing it up may not have been the best solution, Acmetropolis is safe once again because of you."

"Thanks, Zadavia," said Ace as he stood up to greet his superior. "We try," he added and grinned.

"But congratulating you for that wasn't exactly the intention for this call," said Zadavia. Before anyone could ask what she meant, the big screen in their living room turned on, revealing a few shots of the Loonatics' past battlefields. None of them could still really see the point of the call, until Rev spoke.

"Hey, what are those hooded things?" he said and pointed at one of the shots. His teammates had a closer look, and noticed that there were indeed two hooded creatures lurking around the places.

"For the past few days, these creatures have been appearing in the most unlikely places," said Zadavia. "Various museums have also reported sightings of those two, but sadly, no one has been able to catch them in the act."

"So, what's this got to do with us?" Duck asked and folded his arms, leaning back lazily on the sofa. "I mean, it's just a couple of tourists. Can't really blame them for wanting to have a look around the place."

"Yeah, but why our old battlefields?" Tech wondered. "And why go to museums, but never really go in there? This is pretty suspicious if you ask me."

"Not to me, it isn't. Just look at them," said Duck and extended one arm to point at the screen. "They're not doing anything but exploring. Sure, being dressed in hoods is a little creepy, but hey! Tourists are _always_ creepy!"

Zadavia frowned at Duck. Instantly, the shot of the 'tourists' morphed into a close-up of the two. As the Loonatics watched, they noticed just how the creatures were able to move from place to place: by warp. "Tourists who certainly know how to bend the rules of time and space," said Zadavia. Duck opened his beak to reply, but decided not to.

"Still, this isn't the most suspicious act they've done," Zadavia continued, and the shot of the creatures changed once more. It now showed one of them looking around to make sure no one was looking, and the other one pulling something out of its sleeve and putting it down on the ground. With that, the warp appeared, and they were out. "As you can see, they seem to leave something at one scene, unlike the others."

Ace stepped forward a bit, and leaned to the screen, squinting his eyes to be able to see what it was. When he did, he leaned back with a funny look on his face. "Wait… is that a letter?"

Lexi's ears perked. "Letter? Are you sure? Is it handwritten?"

Tech stood up and examined the picture as well. "No, Lexi," he said while scratching his chin in thought. "It's not even a to-do list. I think it's an actual alphabetical letter."

"Loonatics, your next job is to find these creatures and find out what it is they're looking for," said Zadavia. "They may only look suspicious, but I fear that they're planning to do something more if they're not stopped." The image on the screen changed into an empty spot in the middle of the city. "This is the place where you fought Rip Runner and his Robo-Amigos some time ago. I suspect the hooded creatures to appear there next. Find them, and uncover what is going on."

Rev groaned a bit to the memory of that battle, but Ace covered it with his reply. "We're on it, chief!"

"Zadavia out." With that, the hologram faded out, and the image of Zadavia disappeared.

"Geez… speaking of weird enemies…" Duck commented, referring to the conversation they had had earlier. "A bunch of creepy guys wondering around our old fields. That's a job for the cops, not us!"

"Don't be ridiculous, Duck," said Ace. "All we gotta do is find out what they're doing. Besides, I wanna know what's up with the letter."

Slam stood up and grunted something excitedly, while Rev nodded and smiled wide. Lexi shook her head, and decided to join in as well. "Whatever you say, oh team leader," she said.

Ace laughed a bit, but before he could shout his catchphrase, Tech interrupted. "Uh, guys, you do realize that we have to go out without our suits on, right?"

"Bah, so what?" said Duck and patted Tech on the back. "It's not like anyone's gonna judge this duck's fabulous looks!" He flexed the arm that wasn't patting Tech and smirked.

Tech sighed and rolled his eyes. "All I'm saying is that it may look weird if we're seen looking like this," he said. "People are used to our superhero outfits, and they won't know it's us if they see us."

"Even better!" said Duck. "Then we'll fit in better with the tourists!"

With nothing else to say, Tech brushed Duck's hand off his back. Ace found his cue, and posed. "Alright guys," he said. "Let's jet!"

--

Despite the fact that it had been attacked countless times, Acmetropolis wasn't exactly the quickest city in the world to repair itself after a blow like that. The Loonatics always thought so, and were proven right once again when they arrived at the scene Zadavia had pointed out to them. The buildings were still busted; glass was still scattered everywhere; cars were still piled up; the streets and the buildings still had marks after the giant Robo-Amigos stomped and punched them; heck, even the giant Robo-Amigos were still lying in a ruin-pile in the middle of a street.

"Man… they just can't keep the place clean," said Ace as he stepped over yet another burned piece of rock. "How long's it been since we were here? Six months?"

"Probably, could be more," said Rev while carefully trying not to step on tiny particles of any kind. "I just wish they'd start it already, I mean, if it's been so long since we battled, they should've at least taken all this junk off the road. And besides, having all this here just keeps reminding me of that day, and it really grinds my gears."

"_Yow!_" Duck suddenly yelped. He hopped around on one leg while holding the other, seemingly trying to get something out of it. It was a piece of glass, and when he finally got it out of his foot, he threw it away with an angry expression. "Sheesh! That's the fourth time already."

"You should've just worn some real shoes, Duck, and not those sandals," said Lexi and chuckled. "Besides, you getting hurt lets me know which places to avoid," she added, because she was basically following Duck's tracks, knowing that he'd end up getting at least a little bit hurt anyway.

"Oh, ha-ha…" Duck said plainly and glared at Lexi.

"Come on, you guys," said Tech. "Let's not forget why we're here. We have to focus on finding those hooded things. They could be anywhere around here – this is such a big place."

Ace rubbed the back of his neck and had a little look around. He then slapped his own forehead, and laughed. "Oh, brother… I'm so caught up in finding out about that letter, I completely forgot!" he said, and turned around to face Rev. "Rev, you can tell if they're here, can't you?"

"Well, sure Ace! No problem!" Rev replied. With that, his eyes began to glow a weird-looking bright pink, and he scanned the area around him. He saw broken houses, ruins, busted cars; almost everything but what they were looking for. There were no traces of another letter, or the hooded creatures. When Rev was certain that nothing was to be found, the pink glow faded, and he shook his head.

"Rats…" said Ace, and his smile leaked off his face. "You think they've already been here?"

"I highly doubt that," said Tech and kneeled down on the ground to pick up an oddly shaped rock. "But even so, I think we should stick around for a while, just in case they decide to pop up."

Lexi growled. She had been listening to the conversation, and she knew that the hooded things weren't near, but she had been holding it in for too long. She just had to let it out. "_Duck!_" she exclaimed, surprising everyone (Tech jolted up so fast, he almost threw the rock in Slam's face).

"What?" said Duck, pretending to be offended. "What'd I do now?"

"Cut the act, and stop glaring at me like that!" Lexi went on, clutching her fists and frowning at Duck. "I was just kidding, okay?"

"Yeah right!" said Duck and laughed. "I know you better than that, Lexi. You like to be watched."

"Oh, so?" Lexi spat, and little sparks of pink formed around her ears. "Don't make me cross the line with you, Danger Duck! You don't want to see me angry!"

Duck didn't reply, but faked a scared gasp and cower before laughing. Lexi frowned even more at him. Duck was a great fighter, he really knew how to use his powers, and sometimes, his annoying nature and arrogance actually came in handy. But when he acted like that, it really got on Lexi's nerves. It was as if he wanted to piss her off or make her angry at him. She hated it when he did that – it made her feel like he was teasing her for being the only girl, or something.

Before she could sink lower in her hate-thoughts about Duck, however, Lexi's Sonic Hearing picked up some strange sound she had never heard before. They perked, and her frown shot off into a wide-eyed expression. Ace noticed.

"Lex, you hear something?" he asked and leaned forward in her direction a bit.

"Do I ever," said Lexi, and kept listening. She heard a loud _SHOOP_, and then a bright blue light suddenly filled the area they were in. It was unmistakably from a vortex, or some sort of a warp, but since Lexi's specialty was listening, she didn't really care which kind it was. As the light faded, Lexi heard a couple of footsteps, and the warp close, but nothing else. In a few moments, everything went silent. When she was absolutely sure that she wouldn't hear anything more, Lexi relaxed her ears and looked at her teammates, who were still looking at her as if she was telling them an exciting ghost story.

"Well? Did you hear them?" Tech had to ask, curiosity almost beaming from his eyes.

"Not them, no," said Lexi, and watched as Tech's, as well as everyone else's expressions morphed into disappointed ones. "But I did hear the warp open and close, and some footsteps, so I think they should be arriving soon."

The boys' moods immediately brightened. Ace fist-pumped the air, and mouthed a small: "Yes!" Slam laughed excitedly, and Rev began rubbing his hands together, repeating: "Oh boy! Oh boy! Oh boy!" several times. Tech merely smiled, but Lexi knew that he was just as excited as everyone else – she was herself. It certainly looked like Ace's curiosity for the letters had finally spread itself into all of his teammates.

Well, almost all of them.

"I still don't see what the big deal is," said Duck and shrugged. "If you wanna see them so bad, why don't you just go look for them?"

"Weren't you listening before, Duck?" said Tech, his eyebrows narrowing slightly. "We're going to stay hidden for a few minutes, and let _them_ find _us_. I looked through the video shots Zadavia sent us, and I noticed that the creatures never leave the scenes until they've explored the whole thing. So we just have to wait for them to get here, and if necessary, we attack them."

"Give 'em a break. Would you want to be attacked during a vacation?" Duck commented. Geez… he just wouldn't give up, would he?

"Well, if we're going to stay here all night, we might as well make ourselves comfortable," said Lexi and stretched. She looked around for a place to sit, but only saw rocks and glass. "Somehow…" Lexi stepped over a few piles of old walls that most definitely had once stood upright, avoiding contact with any sharp ends. She then brushed some dust, rocks and glass away with her foot, and sat down on the 'clean' spot that formed. The pile of walls lay behind her, and she let her weight lean backwards, lying down on it. The edges of the former walls stung her back a little, so it took her a while to find a decent place to lie on.

Lexi looked up, and saw that her teammates had all followed her move, and she smiled. Where would they be without her? Ace sat down on one of the now dusty and rusty Robo-Amigo's arm, and kept turning his head in all the directions his spine allowed him to, anxious to find the hooded creatures. He fidgeted with his fingers and toes, trying to calm himself down and hide his excitement.

Just a few feet from the Robo-Amigos, Tech and Rev – being the best buddies they were – found their own spot on the ground. They had used the same technique as Lexi, but didn't act as laid back. Rev's eyes trailed from left to right rapidly, and when Lexi had a closer look, she noticed that he had clutched his fists, and was now clutching them even tighter, as if he was refraining from standing up and running around to look for the hooded creatures. Tech, however, took slow and deep breaths to hold down his excitement.

Across the two friends was a huge pile of rocks that Slam had built for his own comfort. Unlike the others he didn't sit down, but instead, he leaned back on the pile and rested his body on it. Lexi heard him sigh blissfully before he lowered his head and closed his eyes to relax. He let out a few pent up laughs before completely calming down.

Duck, however, made himself comfortable by Quacking on top of one of the Robo-Amigos and plumping down on them almost instantly. Lexi heard him exhale loudly, just to let everyone know that he had found the best spot. She frowned and leaned her head back on the wall-pile, following Slam's move by closing her eyes.

Gradually, Lexi drift into her own mind, and almost forgot where she was. Her eyes only saw the back of her closed eyelids, and there, swirls upon swirls danced for her. She smiled, and sighed in relaxation. Even though she was looking forward to meeting the hoodies, as she had decided to call them, she liked it better to just lie back and take it easy. That way, she could have a little moment of her own, and didn't need to think about having to kick someone's butt.

The blonde bunny stretched yet again, and slowly opened her eyes. Or, she would have done it slowly if it hadn't been for the fact that there was another set of eyes right above her own. Lexi's eyes hot open as she scanned the face she didn't really see, partly because it was hooded, and partly because the shadows avoided her vision from catching any details. The two of them stared at each other for a couple of seconds before they realized what was going on. In a flash, Lexi shot up from the wall-pile and screamed, while the hoodie jolted backwards and almost fell down, screaming as well.

Right on cue, the boys stood up and hurried to the scene. Duck arrived first via Quack; Rev only a millisecond later, and then Ace, Tech and Slam ran towards Lexi and the hoodie. All five of them had the same bland of excitement, worry and fear in their faces as they looked at Lexi, asking her without words what was wrong.

"Guys! I found a hoodie!" Lexi exclaimed and pointed at the wall-pile.

Duck looked at the pile, then back at Lexi and cocked an eyebrow at her. "A… hoodie?" he said lamely. "Lexi, you _do_ realize that that is a pile of rock, don't you?"

"Wait, wait!" said Ace, preventing Lexi from spitting something back at Duck. "Lex, did you see a hooded thing behind the pile?"

"Behind it? The thing was standing over me like a total creep!" Lexi shouted and expanded her arms, still shocked after seeing the hoodie.

Before anyone else could express themselves, the hoodie in question stood up from behind the wall-pile, revealing its long, black Reaper-esque cloak. It didn't do anything – in fact, it didn't even move. Ace took a step forward and scanned the image before him.

"Hey, doc," he said. "Who are you, and what's the big idea roaming around our old battlefield like this, huh?"

The hoodie didn't answer, but just stood there completely still, seemingly trying to comprehend the fact that he was looking at the Loonatics, and not someone else. Ace was about to continue speaking, but before he could even think about opening his mouth again, the hoodie took down his hood, revealing a very normal, young, brown-haired human being. He smiled the biggest smile the Loonatics had seen in a while, his eyes twitched, and he started laughing. He then turned around, waving his arm.

"Dude! I found them!" he yelled. "I _found_ them! They're here! They're actually here!!"

The six Loonatics all looked at each other, all of them thinking the exact same thing: What the heck? But the fact that the hoodies had been looking for them was a clear sign for them to get ready for battle. They all prepared themselves for the worst, and tried calculating just who the other 'dude' was, and where he could pop up.

Lexi's ears perked once more, and she heard the warp open and close again, followed by the same blue light from before. Lexi, along with the boys, turned their heads to the hoodies' direction, and saw that they both looked identical, except the one who had just arrived was wearing glasses. The two 'creatures' looked at each other and the Loonatics repeatedly before they began jumping around and cheering.

The Loonatics leaked out of their fighting poses, and all gave the two men a funny look. Lexi's head spun. What in the world was going on?


	2. Talk, brothers, talk!

**Chapter 2 – Talk, brothers, talk!**

* * *

It was only on very rare occasions that none of the Loonatics spoke. Now was one of those occasions. They all just stared with wide eyes and open jaws at the two hoodies who were still dancing in front of them. The hoodies laughed and cheered, danced and jumped, and gave each other high-fives repeatedly. When they had had their share of happy time, they both plumped down on the ground, landing straight on their backs, and sighed with pleasure, both smiling wider than Lexi thought was physically possible.

After a few seconds of complete silence, giving each other looks, and cocking eyebrows at the hoodies, the Loonatics finally decided to break the ice – or rather, Ace did. The team leader stepped forward and rubbed the back of his neck. "So, uh… You guys have any intention on telling us what's going on before the next meteor strikes?"

One of the hoodies sat up in a flash, and framed his cheeks with his hands like a thirteen-year-old fangirl. The other, the one wearing glasses, smiled even wider, looking at his brother. "He has the accent…" he said dreamily.

"I know, I know! Isn't it awesome?" the other one said, not letting go of his face.

Ace curled his lip and eyed Lexi, who just shrugged, not having a clue what they were talking about. "Seriously, docs," Ace continued. "What's all the fuss about?"

"Yeah, and what's with the Grim Reaper getup?" said Duck. "It's a bit too late to dress up for Halloween, don't you think?"

Both hoodies looked at each other, and then somewhat squealed. "Wow!" said one. "He's missing the lisp, but his attitude is _exactly_ the same!"

"What are you getting at?" said Duck and frowned. Lexi stifled a laugh, because she totally agreed with the hoodies – well, about the attitude, anyway.

The hoodie with glasses sat up and looked at each of the Loonatics' expressions. Lexi could tell that he was about to spill it out, so she didn't want to barge in on the first word. The hoodie poked his brother's shoulder, which made him un-frame his cheeks and look at the six beings in front of him. They stood up at once, and bowed in a gentleman-ish way.

"Greetings," said the hoodie with glasses. "My name is Gil, and this is my brother Gus. It's an honor to finally meet you, Loonatics. We've been waiting for this moment all our lives."

"Uh, thanks, I guess," said Ace, and looked at his teammates, who still weren't quite catching the brothers' drift. They all just shrugged and looked back at the brothers, hoping to hear a slightly better explanation.

Gus giggled, while Gil took off his glasses and wiped a single tear out of his eye. "Will you just look at them…" he said. "They're so confused… it's _adorable_!"

"Hey, not to be rude or anything, but do you mind hurrying up to the point here?" said Tech and folded his arms. "Constantly commenting on how we look or sound just makes us more curious as to what you're up to."

Gil put his glasses back on and cleared his throat. "Sorry, we're just really caught in the moment here," he said and smiled at his brother. "You see, we're_ huge_ fans of you guys, and meeting you is just… it's overwhelming, you know?"

"We've been watching you guys in action since you came to be!" said Gus and gave a large bare-toothed grin. "Every time there's an attack on the city, the country, the continent, the planet, or the universe for the matter, we rush out to watch you guys! We simply adore your powers, and battle techniques. Watching you fight is like… it's like…" Gus scratched his head, trying to find a good comparison.

"It's like watching an artist at work!" Gil finished, expanding his arms to show how much he meant it.

Lexi couldn't believe her very ears, and she knew that was hard, since she had the best hearing around. Those guys couldn't have been criminals, not even a couple of low-life shoplifters! They were just obsessed fans of the Loonatics! Hearing those two flatter them like that actually made Lexi feel her cheeks get a little warmer, and she couldn't help but smile.

She eyed the boys, and saw that they all looked a bit touched as well. Tech just flipped his wrist, being the modest type he was; Rev nudged his index fingers together, looking sort of sheepish in the process; Ace seemed to be taken aback by all the compliments, complete with the shocked expression; Slam chuckled a bit; and Duck stood up straight very proudly. Lexi was certain that they were all just as flattered as she was.

Just then, a bell rang in Lexi's mind, and she snapped out of the flatter-fit. She turned around to face the brothers again and stepped forward to ask. "Say, if you guys are such big fans, why all the hush-hush?" she said. "You know, why sneaking around like that?"

"I told you: tourists," said Duck and shrugged. Lexi ignored him, and was relieved to see that so did the brothers.

"Oh, well, that's an easy question," said Gil. "You see, since you guys are this famous, we didn't want to barge in on your lives like a couple of wackos. We were just being the fans we are; we've done this to other guys like you before." Lexi was just about to ask what he meant, but Gil continued, making her forget about it. "Also, we wanted _you_ guys to find _us_. I mean, we didn't want to just stop by your tower ourselves – that'd be rude!"

_And how does sneaking around qualify as 'not rude'?_ Lexi thought and rolled her eyes. She heard the boys sigh, which told her that they were thinking the exact same thing.

"Hey, now wait a minute," said Tech and stepped forward as well. "If you guys wanted to meet us so bad, why did you use the warp? Appearing, disappearing and then reappearing in random places aren't exactly the best ways for us to find people."

"There are two reasons for that one too," said Gus. "We wanted to look suspicious so that you'd notice us, and maybe get at least a little interested in what we were up to. And judging by this, it worked!" He laughed a bit, and then cleared his throat. "And besides, using that warp was a great idea to take the attention from the letters!"

Gil sharply turned his head to his brother, with an expression that screamed: "Dude!" and just as sharply, Ace snapped out of his shocked state and stared at the brothers. "The _letters_?" he exclaimed. "There are more of them? Okay, docs. _Now _we're getting somewhere! We saw that you left a letter on one spot, and I've been dying to know what it's all about since! And now you tell me there are _more_ of them?"

Gus bit his lip, while Gil rolled his eyes, but smiled. "Okay, there's a question we can't really answer right now," he said. "You'll have to figure it out by yourselves later on."

After all this time holding in his excitement, Ace's mood dropped instantly. Lexi knew so, because the moment Gil closed his mouth, Ace's wide eyes sunk, his ears dropped, and he developed a very disappointed expression (Lexi could've sworn she heard him whimper as well). The brothers noticed, and Lexi noted that they seemed to look sorry for him. Gus bit his lip again, and Gil rubbed the back of his neck, while Ace's expression kept sinking lower. Was he playing with them, or was he really that upset? Lexi had no idea…

"Aw, come on, Gil!" Gus finally said. "At least let them find theirs!"

At first, Gil looked deep in thought, but then he eyed the Loonatics, and saw just how curious they had gotten. Lexi's head spun again. Why wouldn't they let them see the letter? What was so important about it? And better yet, why was it labeled as 'theirs'?

Nobody could think any further, because the moment Lexi had begun trying to find logical answers to those questions, Gil reached down to a pocket of the huge cloak he was wearing, and picked up a small iron stick. Lexi observed as he pushed something that looked like a tiny button on the stick, and it started opening up. Little shards of light oozed out of it, and suddenly, the same blue light from before surrounded the eight. The almost blinding light turned around in circles, and finally, Lexi saw what she assumed to be the warp the brothers had used.

Gil gestured the Loonatics to walk in, and Gus did the same. Lexi was a bit unsure. Should they trust those two guys? They had only just met them, and it could be that they were lying about everything. Maybe they were just trying to lure them into a trap or something. Even though Gil and Gus looked very innocent and kind, Lexi wasn't sure if she should trust them. But she was probably the only one who thought so, because Ace almost immediately jumped forward and smiled wide.

"What are you guys waiting for?" he exclaimed. "Come on!" With that, he jumped into the warp.

The other boys smiled and followed Ace's move. Gus jumped in after them, but Gil waited for Lexi to make a move. Lexi was still a bit unsure, but since the boys had all gone in there anyway, she decided to follow. She nodded to Gil and hopped into the warp.

She expected to experience some weird feeling, like stomach turning, feeling like she was being pulled backwards, or something, but nothing happened. The only thing that happened was that she stepped from one place and appeared in another. It was just like stepping out of her room and into the hall. Lexi turned her head to see what was left behind her, but only saw Gil pulling the warp back into the stick. Lexi scratched her head as to how a single stick could hold such a big warp, but decided not to think about it.

She had a look around, and immediately noticed how wrecked the place was. It was an old warehouse, but obviously not in use, because it had been burned to a crisp. Every single ounce of it was pitch-black, or at least had a shade of grey on it. Lexi looked up, and saw that the roof had been blow up, so she basically saw the bare sky instead of a ceiling. Duck stepped forward and turned around a few times as he had a look around.

"Hey…" he began. "Isn't this one of the arsenal warehouses we busted Stoney and Bugsy robbing, Ace?"

"Yeah, now that you mention it, it _does_ look kinda familiar," said Ace and scratched his chin. He pointed at all the broken explosives and used bombs on the floor and shook his head. "I'm impressed. They actually cleaned the place," he then added sarcastically.

Lexi chuckled a bit, and Duck smiled. "So, uh, where do you guys keep this letter?" Ace asked the brothers, who were still exploring the warehouse as if they had never been there before.

"Oh, right," said Gus. "Sorry, but coming back here is just another reason for us to be all fanboy-ish!" He and Gil shared a laugh, which made Lexi roll her eyes once more. "Okay, seriously, the letter is lying on the floor." Gus smiled, and the Loonatics had a look around. Everyone turned their heads and bodies in circles, trying to find that little letter that apparently was so important, but nothing was to be seen.

"Where on the floor, exactly?" Tech finally asked.

Gil grinned. "Oh, it's there," he said. "You just have to say a few magic words!"

Duck groaned. "Great, yet another 'Open-Sesame' thing…" he said. "So what? We just have to figure out the words ourselves, or are you guys gonna tell us?"

"We're not saying anything," said Gus and smiled. "You guys go right ahead. I'm sure the more you talk, the more odds there are of the letter appearing."

"You're doing it again, docs," said Ace and frowned. "What's up with you and keeping secrets from us?"

The moment Ace let go of the last word, Lexi saw something from the corner of her eye. She turned around, and spotted something sparkling on the ground just a few feet away from them. "Guys! Look!" she exclaimed and pointed to the spot the sparkle was coming from. The boys looked in the direction she was pointing, and all saw the same thing: A little green sparkle on the ground, but there was nothing there that could have made the sparkle. The Loonatics all looked at the brothers, who simply laughed.

"There it is!" said Gil. "That's the letter!"

"What? That little sparkle is the letter?" said Ace and walked a few steps closer to the green sparkle. "How's that even possible?"

"Oh, it's very possible," said Gus, and turned to Rev, who was just as confused as everyone else. "Rev, what's your dad's most frequently used phrase?"

"Uh…" Rev began, not really sure what Gus was getting at, but decided to answer anyway. "Sweet-meep-meep? Why? Wouldn't you have known that, you know, supposedly being our biggest fans and all- _holy bird seed!_"

Lexi jolted upwards a bit when Rev shouted those last words, and noticed just how much his eyes had widened. He was staring in the sparkle's direction, so she turned that way as well. When she did, she almost shouted the same thing. The little green sparkle now actually appeared to have a solid form, and the sparkles had been replaced with a mild glow. She gazed at it for a moment, loving the looks of it, even if she wasn't sure why. But as usual, a familiar nagging voice interrupted the bond she and the 'letter' were beginning to share.

"Yeah, yeah," said Duck. "That's all very pretty and all, but don't you think we should start looking for that letter-thing?"

Every single being in the area groaned, but then the brothers laughed. Lexi knew exactly why, and was proven right when Gil spoke.

"Oh my lord, his attitude is perfect, I tell you!" he exclaimed. "_Perfect_!"

Duck frowned and folded his arms, glaring a bit at the brothers. "Alright you guys, this is the second time you say I have an 'attitude'," he threw at them as he walked closer to the two. "Do you have some bone to pick with me or something? Do you really want to piss off _this_ duck?" Duck unfolded his arms and put them on his sides, flexing his chest to look threatening. It didn't work – frankly, he looked kind of stupid.

Gil and Gus tried to keep their plain smiles, but soon enough, both of them failed to stifle their laughs any more. In fact, they weren't the only ones who let out a laugh, because practically everyone at least snickered. Duck's body leaked from the proud position and he folded his arms again, his beak pouting as much as a beak could.

"You're despicable…" he muttered.

Duck went completely silent after saying those words, and if Lexi hadn't just stopped giggling, she wouldn't have noticed the sudden change in his facial expression. For a while, his eyes were so wide, it looked like he was trying to shoot lasers out of them. After a few seconds, his beak flopped open and his arms fell down to his sides. He slowly lifted up his left hand to point at something.

"L- lo- look…!" he almost whispered, still standing almost completely still. For the third time, the Loonatics had to turn around to look at something someone was pointing at. This time, however, was very different.

The little sparkle Lexi had first seen had changed from that, to being a glow, to being what it was now. Lexi's eyes shot open as she saw, lying right there on the floor, a very real alphabetic letter. Its now spring-green surface was glowing like the sun, and if Lexi's ears weren't fooling her, there were weird sounds coming from it as well. Gunshots; metal being dropped; unintelligible gibberish with different-sounding voices; car horns; something being chewed…

"Gyaah! Make it stop!" Lexi shouted and pulled down her hears to cover them. Though her Sonic Hearing wasn't picking up all those sounds, they were driving her mad!

"It's there!" Ace exclaimed. "It's actually there!" With that, he rushed to the letter, and then kneeled down on the ground to examine it. He too then covered his ears, and looked up at the others. "It's an 'S'," he said, trying to cope with all the sounds that were slowly sticking themselves into everyone's minds.

Gil and Gus, however, just smiled. "Well? What are you waiting for?" Gus said to Ace. "Aren't you gonna pick it up?"

Ace looked at the brothers suspiciously, as did Lexi. What was their game now? Was there something going to happen if the letter was touched? Surely it was something abnormal, since it had gone from being just a sparkle on the ground, to a solid 'S' that made weird sounds. But still, it could have been just a trick. Or maybe it was a trap. Either way, Lexi for one didn't know how to respond, and she wasn't sure if Ace was either. He just looked at the letter for a few seconds, wondering whether he should touch it or not.

To everyone's surprise, though, Tech stepped forward with his arms folded. "Oh, please, guys," he said. "These brothers are just fans. Even if they have that warp, I wouldn't be so afraid of a little letter. Here, allow me."

With that said, Tech bent down to the ground to pick up the letter. Now, if Lexi thought it had sent out annoying sounds before, it was nothing compared to what happened the moment Tech's fingertips touched it. Everyone in the warehouse (Gil and Gus included this time) covered their ears as the letter supposedly went mad. The glow was blindingly bright, and from the sounds of it, Lexi thought the letter was actually yelling at Tech for touching it. The sounds got louder with every second, and some of the gibberish was beginning to sound like words.

"_I'm an elk! Shoot me!_"

"_Ah, mon cherie…_"

"_This means war!_"

"_Spring! Bone!_"

"_Suuuuper geeenius!_"

Then everything went absolutely silent. The letter stopped glowing, the sounds drifted away like dust in the wind, and although she wasn't sure if her ears were fooling her, she thought she heard a few faded laughs and giggles. There was a long silence in the room as everyone slowly uncovered their ears to be sure that the noise was over. Tech stared at the 'S' in his hand, wondering what in the world had just happened. The Loonatics all eyed the brothers, who were just as shocked as they were.

"Okay, busters," Duck finally said, thus breaking the tension that was forming. "You've got some major explaining to do. Like… what the _heck_ was _that_ all about?!"

"I… I honestly don't know…" said Gil and adjusted his glasses, which had skewed a bit on his nose. "I mean, I know we installed those sounds, but…"

"That noise! And the glow!" Gus exclaimed. "Dude! Even _I _don't know what happened here!"

Tech and Ace stood up, Tech still holding the letter, staring at it. "This confuses even me…" he said in a low, surprised voice, and lifted his arm to look at the letter from another perspective. "I've never seen anything like it."

"We didn't really expect that, now did we?" said Gus and smiled yet again.

Another awkward silence followed (although Tech was the only one who didn't sense the awkwardness. He just kept looking at the letter, and then put it in his jean pocket). Ace then decided to speak, since his wonderings about the letter had sort of been answered. The brothers had still yet to answer a few more questions, though. "Hey, uh… just out of curiosity, where are you guys from?"

Gil and Gus immediately brightened up and smiled wide at Ace. "Well heck!" Gil exclaimed. "Let's show them!" He then picked up the little iron stick again, and opened the warp in the same fashion he had done before. But before he or Gus had a chance to say or do anything else, Lexi just had to interrupt.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa!" she said. "This is starting to look pretty darn suspicious again! Why would you guys take us to the place?" She turned to face her teammates. "Who _knows_ where they're from? They could be from another _planet_ for all we know! And if so, how the heck are we going to get home?"

It took the boys a few seconds to grasp Lexi's words, but when they did, they all frowned at the brothers. "Yeah, she's right," said Ace and folded his arms. "How can we trust you?"

Gus chuckled a bit, and Gil shook his head smiling. "That's not what you said when we told you about the letter…" he said in a sing-song voice.

"Yeah, well… that's because then we didn't have a green-glowing 'S' yelling at us!" Ace replied.

"Just relax, you guys," said Gus. "If we really _were_ up to something, wouldn't we have huddled more, or grinned, or hinted that we knew something we shouldn't?"

No one said a word, not even Lexi, because even if she was having a hard time trusting the brothers, Gus was right. Almost every single villain who had gotten to their good sides had done at least one of the things he had mentioned. Lexi sighed.

"Okay, fine," she said and slowly walked towards the warp. "But don't blame _me_ if something horrible happens!"

Without another word, Lexi hopped into the warp, and was again transported to whole different place without feeling anything. She waited for the rest of the team and the brothers to show up, and while she did, she had a look around where she was.

She was standing on a plain pavement on an even plainer street. The houses were lined up like a nice neighborhood should, but Lexi couldn't help but notice that some houses looked newer than the others. In fact, when she turned her head to look at the house closest to her, she saw that it had been dug up. Although it looked like construction had stopped years ago, it was still obvious that this house was way older than any other house in the street. While it was sitting in a hole of dug dirt, its surface proved its age as well: its walls were made of concrete that had dirt, mold, and vines all over them; every ounce of steel on it had been eaten up by rust; and even if Lexi didn't have super-vision, she saw that it was impossible to look inside through the windows because of how filthy they were.

Lexi heard the warp close behind her and turned around to see all her teammates and the brothers along with them. The boys all examined the house like Lexi had done, and then looked at Gil and Gus, who just smiled proudly like the house was the most beautiful thing in the world.

Ace cocked an eyebrow at them. "Seriously? You guys live here?" he said, pointing with his thumb over his shoulder at the house. "In this dump?"

Gil smiled. "Yup! This has been our home since we found out it existed," he said.

"But this house has been dug up," said Lexi. "Why would anyone want to live here?"

The brothers didn't answer, but instead, they grabbed the Loonatics' hands and dragged them along with them as they ran towards the house. The Loonatics were sort of forced to run down a few feet of dirt in order to reach the same level as the house. Gus then let go, and opened the door. It creaked open and revealed a more decent-looking place than Lexi expected. As she walked in, she observed their whereabouts.

Although the house looked moldy and disgusting on the outside, it was very clean on the inside. Lexi looked to the right, where she saw a large, wooden desk, which had pencils, pens, papers and ink piled up nicely on it. Unlike what she imagined, it wasn't dusty at all. To Lexi's left was a coat hanger, where the brothers were now hanging their cloaks. Lexi walked a few steps and saw that straight ahead was a long hallway with a cupboard placed on the right side of it, and numerous picture frames on the left side. In the middle of the hallway, to the left was a kitchen, and at the end of the hallway, a large living room, complete with two lazy-boy chairs, coffee table, and a big flat-screen television (which was the only thing that looked sort of modern).

"Hey…" Tech said after exploring the house. "This house is ancient, guys. It's at least 800 years old!" He turned round to face the brothers, who were now just standing in the hallway, wearing identical suits. "What's going on? What is this place? And why do you even live here?"

The brothers looked at each other and then smiled at the Loonatics. "Okay, truth will be told!" said Gus and cracked his knuckles. "Here's the deal. We didn't _always_ live here, and to be honest, we didn't even know this house existed!"

"Still avoiding the point, guys," said Ace, hinting that the brothers should start from the beginning and end at the end.

"Our father was a historian, and in our old house, where we grew up, he had this office that was totally off limits," said Gil and took a few steps toward the living room. "He would sometimes stay in that office for hours upon hours, reading files or putting pieces together. Gus and I were, of course, told never to go in there because of the chances of us wrecking something. That made us so curious, that one day, we couldn't hold it in any longer. When we were certain that dad had gone out of the house, and that mom was too busy to even care what we were doing, we broke into the office and had a look around."

"But it turned out there was nothing interesting to be found, so we got bored very quickly," Gus continued as he followed his brother's steps. The Loonatics followed the brothers, anticipating hearing more. "That is, until we stumbled upon this funny looking file, which was very well labeled "Warner Brothers" in big, black, bold letters. And since it was so well labeled, we decided to have a look at it – after all, it was the only thing that had caught our eye."

The crew had now reached the living room, and the brothers waited for everyone to get in before they continued telling their story. "We examined the file and its sayings," said Gil. "It had been correctly labeled, because the only thing it was about was the "Warner Brothers" in question. You see, in the early twentieth century, there were these four brothers, Harry, Albert, Samuel and Jack Warner, who were basically the ones that put sounds into moving pictures at the time. Later on, they founded a company by the same name – Warner Brothers Incorporated – and became big names in the production business for movies, as well as animated shorts."

The brothers paused for a moment to let all this information sink in. Lexi's head spun a bit, but as soon as she was able to understand the big blow of words, it stopped, and she, along with the boys, gestured the brothers to continue.

"We thought this was very interesting, so we decided to dig deeper into those brothers' lives," said Gus. "As the years went on, Gil and I learned more and more about their work, company, and success, and we soon found out that this particular company had stayed afoot ever since it was founded – and we still think it is!"

The Loonatics waited a few seconds for more to come, but then realized that the story was seemingly over. Again, Ace was the one who spoke first. "This… This is all pretty neat, and all, but why did you guys find it so interesting in the first place?" he said and scratched his head. "I mean, why _that_ file of all the others?"

"That, my dear Ace, is a very easily answered question," said Gil and smiled, as did Gus. "For you see, the Warner brothers were our ancestors!"

"We're Warner brothers too!" said Gus and let out a proud laugh.

Lexi's jaw dropped, and she heard the boys gasp. These men; Gil and Gus, were actually descendants of those successful brothers they had just told the Loonatics about? She was just about to ask them something when Gil interrupted.

"After we found that file, we've been the biggest trivia geeks on the face of this earth!" he exclaimed. "As we grew older, we found more and more movies and cartoons which was produced under their names, and found them all to be amazing! But while we find the live-action ones to be fascinating, we love the cartoons even more!"

"Because we loved the cartoons so much, we decided to look for their best ones of the twentieth century," said Gus. "We found a couple of ancient ones, but in about a decade, we managed to uncover a whole pile of cartoons from the period of 1945 to 1997. They're so awesome, you have no idea!"

As if they were parts of the same whole, Gil and Gus both seemed to float in happiness into the chairs in the living room, and both sighed at the exact same time. The Loonatics gave each other looks. Even if they were the Warner brothers' descendants, to them, they were still just a couple of fanboys.

Suddenly, Gil jolted up in his chair and kept talking (Lexi was beginning to wonder if they'd ever stop). "After watching all those cartoons for the umpteenth time, we started having these weird daydreams," he said. "Daydreams of other descendants just like us! You know, the original writers, the crew members… anything! But also, we thought that maybe there would even be descendants of the cartoons characters themselves!"

"Okay, stop right there, pal!" said Ace and narrowed his eyebrows. "I understand how you're able to have famous ancestors, but there's _no way_ anyone could be a descendant of a cartoon character! I mean… that's just mad, right guys?" He turned his head to his teammates, who all nodded.

"But that's just it! It's very well possible!" Gus exclaimed. "Cartoons aren't just moving drawings; the makers of them just make us _think_ they are! While we think we're watching drawings, we're actually looking at actors that are known as _toons_!"

The Loonatics just stared at the brothers, not having a clue what they were talking about. "Toons?" they all said in unison.

"That's right, y'all!" said Gil. "Toons. They're the real deal. They're what the cartoons are all about! They can float even if they're not supposed to be airborne; talk even if they're inanimate objects; fall a hundred stories and still not get hurt; reach for the most random things from just behind their backs; run away at lightning-fast speed, leaving only a dust cloud behind…" Gil sighed again. "Yes… Toons are what _make_ entertainment…"

Lexi took in everything Gil had just said, and was reminded of her toddler days, where she would sit in front of the television and watch cartoons. She then thought about what the brothers had told them, and imagined the moving objects she had seen so many years ago actually being actors. It _did _make sense, and it _was_ a pretty funny thought. Lexi smiled as she finally realized that the Warner brothers really were nothing to be afraid of.

"But there's still one thing that confuses me," said Rev, causing Lexi to snap out of her thoughts. "If all you said about these 'toons' is true – and if I'm not mistaken, they're probably drawn by hand, thus created – how is it even possible to be a descendant of a toon? I mean, wouldn't one have to be created? That wouldn't count as being a descendant – it'd count as being based off another character, right?"

"Oh… that…" said Gil and looked at Gus. The two of them chuckled and giggled, which made Lexi blush a little. She knew exactly what was making them get into that girly fit, and didn't really want them to explain it any further. Unfortunately, the same thing couldn't be said about the boys, who just tilted their heads in confusion. The Warner brothers noticed, and Gil decided to speak up. "Well, the thing is, most of the toons created are male, whether if they're main characters or extras. So sometimes, as the years pass, female toons are created and put into their lives to spice it up a little. Although most of these interactions are just on-screen relationships, sometimes there's something really going on off-screen, and that can lead to--"

"_Okay_! We get it!" Lexi shouted to stop that sentence from finishing. She knew her teammates were a bit oblivious to those kinds of things, but she was certain that they had gotten the point by now.

"But why are you telling us all of this?" Tech had to ask. "Why did you become such fans of _us_, and not someone else? Why did you look for us? And why would you explain all this ancestors and toons stuff?"

The brothers smirked at each other, and Gus reached for the remote on the coffee table between them. He turned the TV on, which made the Loonatics turn to face it. It didn't surprise them that they were looking at themselves in action. Being the fanboys they were, the Loonatics would've been shocked to see something _else_ on the brothers' screen.

"I see you're not reacting much," said Gil. "But wait! There's more!" He took the remote from his brother's hand, and pressed a few buttons. When done, he lazily leaned back in his chair and grinned at the Loonatics. "Now _this_ is classic entertainment!"

Again, the Loonatics turned to look at the TV, and this time, all of their eyes widened, and their jaws almost dropped to the floor. The brothers had turned on an ancient program called "Looney Tunes", and as the Loonatics watched, they saw more and more similarities between themselves, and the toons on-screen. Because the Loonatics weren't wearing their black suits, they also noticed that they even had the exact same color scheme as the Looney Tunes. And as if this moment wasn't shocking enough, Lexi heard that the way they talked was frighteningly similar as well. The Warner brothers laughed.

"Don't you get it?" Gus exclaimed. "You guys are _toons_! You're the descendants of the Looney Tunes!"

"We're the new generation of WB!" Gil finished, leaving the Loonatics speechless. Fortunately for them, a pig that looked and sounded just like Pork the Pug broke the silence.

"_Ebe- be- be- be- That's all folks!_" he said and waved to the camera, ending an episode, and leaving the Loonatics speechless yet again.


	3. Similarities

Frowning, thrusting his chest and exhaling with his nose, the purple bunny on stage grabbed the microphone stand to do at least one more impression. He had always been told that he was an excellent impersonator, but no one seemed to recognize any of the people he was playing! He had done years of research to be able to do all those persons and characters, and was very annoyed that only the geekiest of trivia geeks had a slight chance of knowing who he was. Fortunately for him, though, he was always able to mimic the voices perfectly, and sometimes – for some unexplainable reason – his face or body, and even his clothes. But even then would the audience just tilt their heads and scratch them in thought, because most of his impressions were too old for any simple-minded being to get.

Gusto decided to pull his Friends act once more, hoping that there would be someone in the audience who at least found it familiar. By morphing his face into what somewhat resembled the long-dead actors, and making his voice and accent sound like they had; he did his last act for the night. He did a few famous one-liners, as well as the classic, sarcastic jokes and comebacks the characters used to sprinkle out like a saint Bernhard's drool. But doing all that was pretty hard as a solo-act, because Gusto had to constantly switch roles (and clothes) at lightning-fast speed as he acted, hoping to get the audience to laugh at least a little bit.

As usual, the Friends act got the audience to let out laughs; mostly because it was humorous, and not because they knew who Gusto was impersonating. But they thought it was funny, and that was enough for him. As the audience stood up to applause, Gusto did his typical twirl to get out of the impression-fit, and back to his normal self, and then bowed.

"Thank you! Thank you!" he exclaimed to the audience while they cheered. "You're too kind!" _Well, not really…_ he then thought to himself.

He blew a few kisses to the audience and bowed again, just before the curtains were slowly pulled down. Gusto sighed and let his long ears fall down, and then stretched. He walked off the stage, and was greeted by his right-hand man as always.

"Dude! What happened up there?" Quackmire exclaimed. "You forgot the Veloceraptor bit! What's up with _that_ huh?"

"Hey, it's _my_ act, so _I'm_ in charge of what I do, okay?" Gusto spat back at the little, gray duck standing before him. "So I didn't do a few lines! Come on! Do you have any idea how many jokes that show had? It's hard to pick the best parts out!"

"Excuses, excuses…" said Quackmire and flipped his wrist lamely. "So did you see Pig in the audience?"

"Pig? You mean Bakin?" said Gusto, and tried to remember if he had seen the snobby pig's face in the audience. "Nope. Can't say I did."

"Dang it!" said Quackmire and kicked the air.

"Relax, Quack. I'm sure he'll come to my shows sooner or later," said Gusto and put a hand on his friend's shoulder. "Besides, what's so important about him showing up anyway?"

Quackmire blushed a bit, and laughed nervously. "Ha-ha! Nothing, nothing! Just…" He relaxed again, and sighed. "You know… He's the only one besides us who's a talking animal, and well… even if he's a total brat, I wanted to know if he knows anything about why it's like that."

Gusto scanned his friend's face and narrowed his eyebrows. Quackmire was right. Only him, Gusto and that rich, snobby pig that never wanted to be around them were animals. Talking, walking-on-hind-legs, standing-up-straight animals. And if that wasn't weird enough, Gusto himself was purple, which – no matter how many doctors he had seen, or how many researches had been done on him – just couldn't be explained.

Then again, there were much more things about the three of them that couldn't be explained. Like how Quackmire was able to take a thirteen story fall, get flattened on the ground, and not really experience any physical pain. Or how Gusto was able to take just one spin around himself wearing a costume, and then be in his regular clothes when he stopped. Or how Bakin could squash and stretch his body immensely without the help of special effects people. Yes, there were numerous things these three could do, but none of them were sure as to why and how.

* * *

**Chapter 3 – Similarities**

The words 'toons', 'descendants' and 'next generation' echoed in Lexi's mind, and she couldn't believe her very ears. What the Warner brothers had just told her and her teammates was just very hard to believe. The fact that the six of them were descendants of toons was just insane – especially since they had only just learned that toons even existed! Lexi started wobbling a bit, and Gus noticed, so he stood up from his chair, letting Lexi lie down on it. When there, she had to blink a few times to remind herself where she was. She looked at the boys, who were just as stunned as she was. Slam put a hand on his head and grunted something, and to Lexi, it sounded like: "Unbelievable…"

"You got that right, Slam!" said Ace, his eyes still fixed on the television screen. "I… I don't even know what to think about this! I can't find an opinion! It's _that_ unbelievable!"

"But it's true!" Gil exclaimed and hopped up from his chair. "Even if you guys are toons, you aren't just _any _toons! You're descendants of possibly the greatest, most awesome toons of all time! I mean, just look at them!" He pointed at the screen, which was now showing a bunny that looked just like Ace pounding on army missiles with a small hammer.

"We are," said Tech and blinked to moist his eyes, which had been open for quite some time. "And we believe you. It's just that… I was a cartoon lover back in the day, and when you tell me that what we're seeing are actually actors, it just makes me wonder how these 'toons' are even made."

"Well, obviously, since it's cartoons and animation we're talking about here, they have to be drawn to be created – I mean, they can't just suddenly pop out of nowhere, right?" said Rev, his statement aimed at the brothers.

Gil nodded in Rev's direction, and smiled. "That's right," he said. "Toons have to be drawn in order for them to be given life. But that, my friend, is a very difficult process. For you see, an artist doesn't just draw something on paper, and then it comes to life. Oh no… it's _way_ more complicated than that."

"How so?" Tech asked as he allowed himself to rest his body in Gil's chair.

"Prepare yourselves for yet another rant, Loonatics, because this is going to be something!" said Gus, and as soon as he let go of the last word, Rev, Slam, Ace, and the suddenly quiet Duck made themselves as comfortable as they could on the floor in front of the brothers.

"Okay, so the process of making a toon is a difficult one, but at the same time, it's pretty easy to explain," said Gil. "Let's say Gus and I were to create a toon. First, we'd, of course, have to design the character we wanted, and which species it is. Is it human? Is it an animal? Or is it a door? That sort of thing. When that'd be settled, it'd be time to put it on paper. A few ideas from both of us on how the character would look, and once we'd like a particular idea, we'd draw that from different angles – front, back, side; the works. Then, and only then, would we be able to make it a real toon."

"Take three sheets of paper, each one for a specific layer," Gus continued. "The first layer is the skeleton. With that covered, we'd know the proportions for the toon more than before. Does it have a big head, but small body? Does it have a big upper body and small lower body, or vice versa? It all adds up in the skeleton. When done with that, we'd take the second sheet, put it on top of the first one to see the proportions, and draw the muscles. They'd tell us how the character would move, or simply add a little feeling to the skeleton. The third sheet would have the skin, and wardrobe if any."

"So, with all that covered, the toon comes to life on the paper?" Duck asked, and scratched his head.

"Ah, now there's a common misconception," Gil replied. "These drawings would be like schematics for the toon – the blueprints. When these three stages are completed, the animator has a clear view on how to move the character. Which is exactly what we'd have to do next: make it move. Altogether, the key frames are called 'The Walk Cycle'. It's basically a couple of drawings of the character walking in its unique way. Just looking at the way a character walks, says a lot about it."

The Loonatics automatically looked at one another, and Lexi for one tried to remember the way each one of them walked. Once again, the brothers were proven right. Despite the fact that they walked very similarly, there were a few tactics that only each of the Loonatics had. When done thinking about all this, the Loonatics looked back at the brothers.

"When we'd be done inking and coloring all these pieces, all that'd be left would be to take pictures of each drawing, and put them together as a whole in the computer!" said Gus and expanded his arms. "And that's where the animators want us to think that the process is over. But here's the twist: the camera they use isn't just a camera. When they take the pictures, they're actually scanning the drawings into a higher-leveled machine, and _that's_ where the toons come to life!"

Tech raised an eyebrow at the brothers. "In a machine? That's where toons come to life? In a machine?"

"Oh, not just any machine, Tech ol' boy!" said Gil. "If I remember correctly, the machine that they use – or used, I'm not sure – is called a Camerinat. Why is it called that? I have no idea, but the fact that it was used to create toons just makes my stomach want to compete in a pole vault."

Lexi took a moment to picture what the brothers had just said. Making a toon did sound pretty interesting, but the thought of herself being originated from a machine was far from being a pleasant feeling. But the weird thing was that she had memories of her past, and she knew where she was from. So how could she have been born in a machine if she remembered her childhood? She had to ask the brothers.

"Hey, uh, guys," she began. "When the artists make the toons, do they add the personality too? And memories and such?"

Gus turned around sharply, and pointed at Lexi, which made her jerk back a bit in her seat. "Excellent question, my dear Lexi!" he exclaimed. "And yes, that is precisely what they do! Before the toon's walk-cycle is put in the Camerinat, the artist has to give it will. Sure, its tactics and some of its personality is visible in the drawings, but where is its back-story? Its past? Or even its future? And why does it act the way it does? It's all up to the artist, and sometimes the animator, to come up with such things."

The Loonatics stared at the brothers with somewhat blank expressions. They couldn't believe it. Everything they remembered, everything they knew, and their personalities at that; all those things had been put in their heads by some other people? So they hadn't really been raised in Acmetropolis? They had just been designed the way they looked, and everything else just put inside their minds? The idea alone didn't make any sense, and Lexi's head started spinning once more as she thought more and more about it.

A long awkward silence filled the room, and only the crazy sound effects and wacky voices from the TV could be heard. Lexi looked up, and saw a big rooster teasing a dog by standing behind a line (possibly the leash limit), and hitting him on the head with a frying pan, saying: "Aaah, shut up!"

Lexi's ears perked a bit. There was something about that rooster that looked very familiar, but she wasn't sure what it was. Was it his physique, his face structure, his accent, or his voice? Lexi squinted her eyes, and automatically turned on her Sonic Hearing to pick up more voice tactics. Duck noticed this act, and snorted.

"What's the matter, Lexi?" he joked. "Getting a little too old? Need to get some eyewear to see, and use superpowers to hear?" He chuckled at his own comment, and Lexi was thankful that no one else did.

"What's up, Lex?" Ace asked. "Hearing something weird?"

"No, it's just…" Lexi started, but then heard the toon on screen say a phrase she knew very well. "Doesn't that rooster sound just like mister Leghorn?"

The boys all looked at each other, and then at the screen, listening for any signs of recognizable language, or ways of talking. Lexi saw that Ace's and Tech's ears perked; Rev's eyes bulged and his beak opened wide; Slam gave a interested: "Oooohhh…"; and Duck actually nodded slowly, and Lexi heard him whisper: "Yeeeaaah… he does…"

Gil and Gus both slapped their foreheads and looked at each other. "_Duuuuuh!_" they both exclaimed. "We totally forgot to tell them about the others!" Gil then stated and laughed, his brother joining him afterwards.

"The… others?" Ace questioned. "What do you mean, _others_? Are there more descendants like us?"

"Heck yeah!" Gus shouted, and snagged the remote from the coffee table, where it was lying. He pushed a few buttons, and almost instantly, several screenshots appeared one by one on the television screen. One of them was of the rooster Lexi had been commenting about, but the others were simply characters the Loonatics had only just seen.

"This is Foghorn Leghorn," said Gil and pointed at the mentioned rooster. "He was a very pranky toon, and absolutely loved to pick on this dog that lived on the same barn as he did. Sometimes, the two would improvise their pranks, and do something that was never even mentioned in the script. Foggy here was also very well known for his southern accent and how he would always interrupt himself by adding "I say" when he started a sentence."

Before the Loonatics could even begin to think about a response, Gus walked up at the screen and pointed at a short cowboy, whose red beard covered almost his entire face. "Here we have Yosemite Sam, the biggest hot-head you ever did see," he said. "You've probably seen the bunny face him a couple of times. Well, let me tell you, this guy had the biggest ego as well, and could never, and I mean _never_ say no to a challenge. A real toughie, but not very bright." Finishing his sentence, Gus made a small motion beside his head, indicating that this Sam had been pretty dumb.

Lexi gagged a bit when Gil pointed at the next character. It was a skunk, and by the looks of it, he had been a big flirt. "This guy's name was Pepé LePew and, before you say it, yes, he was French," he said and chuckled, oblivious to the fact that it hadn't even crossed the Loonatics' minds. "He would strut around the streets of Paris, always looking for someone to love…" Gil sighed dreamily. "Unfortunately, no one would fall in love back, because, after all, he was a skunk! But hey! That never made him give up! Mostly because he never even thought about it."

"Gossamer here was not very famous, but he did make a few appearances in some episodes," said Gus, while pointing at a big, red, hairy monster with wicked eyes. "There were rumors that he was made entirely of this flaming red hair, but none have been confirmed. As for his roles, they were mainly just to play this beast that he is."

Gil skipped a little, and then pointed at a tiny yellow bird on the screen, which almost made Lexi say: "Aww…" out loud. "Ah, Tweety…" said Gil and shook his head. "He looked so sweet, innocent and cute; but underneath all that lay a mischievous, saucy character just begging to be released."

"And it always did – on this guy," Gus continued and pointed at a black and white tuxedo cat with a huge red nose. "Meet Sylvester J. Pussycat. The proudest cat you could ever find if you went looking for one. I mean, sheesh! This guy's attitude was so big, it was _always_ his downfall!" Gus paused for a moment, and made a small measuring motion with his hand. "Weeeeell… not really. Sometimes he would just play a silent scaredy-cat."

Lexi looked at the toon in question, and found it very hard to picture a character with that sort of attitude playing someone mute and scared. The thought made her snicker, though.

"Anyway, Sly here was always the hungry kitty, and he kept wanting to eat Tweety," said Gil. "Unfortunately for him, Granny, this little lady-" He tapped his hand on the screen, where a screenshot of an old lady was. "Kept protecting him, so Sylvester could never really do anything, because she was so protective."

The brothers gave the Loonatics a moment to observe the screenshots and absorb the information they had given them. The more Lexi thought about it, the closer she got to figuring out who were the descendants of the toons she had seen. The Looney Tunes did look very familiar, whether if it was their appearance or their personality. But she still wasn't quite able to put a finger on who was whose ancestor…

"The Shropshire Slasher and his mom here only appeared in one episode," Gus stated, shaking his head, and pointing at a screenshot of a large, muscular man who was standing next to a tiny, chubby, red-haired woman. "Poor things… They could have had some potential. But they were only looked at as extras, so they never really found their big break."

With his hands behind his back, Gil nodded to the screen's direction, aimed at a screenshot of a baby-faced hunter. "Now _this_ guy, however, comes in second on the list of Looney Tunes with the most evolution," said Gil. "Elmer J. Fudd, ladies and gentlemen. Famous for his gullibility, small size, short temper, short attention span, and his inabilities as a hunter. Poor guy never stood a chance against that _wascawwy wabbit_…"

Right on cue, the Loonatics all tilted their heads in confusion and raised an eyebrow. Unfortunately, the Warner brothers wouldn't explain it any further, and instead, Gus pointed at yet another character – this time, a small, supposedly Roman figure. "Only one toon was sophisticated enough to never really lose his temper around a certain smart-ass bunny," he said. "And that would be Marvin the Martian, also known as Commander X-2. He was really quiet and soft-spoken, but what he did! Man! Who'd expect a guy like this to be totally destructive and dangerous?"

No one replied, because, after all, it was a rhetorical question. Gil used the silence to point at a smiling, chubby pig. "This little guy is the one you see frequently at the end of the early Looney Tunes shorts: Porky Pig," he declared. "The ever so lovable stuttering pig had a couple of solo shorts when his career began, but was later always casted as an extra or a sidekick. In our opinion, he pulled both off greatly, and I for one think it's because of this charming, mild-mannered nature he had."

"And finally!" Gus suddenly exclaimed, making the Loonatics jerk a bit. He flung his hand on the screen, where a screenshot of two thugs – one tiny and tough, and the other big and dopey – had been placed. "Here we have Rocky and Mugsy. Two gangsters who just loved being bad, but they weren't really the sharpest hunks of cheese…"

With that, Gil and Gus finally settled, and the Loonatics sensed that the presentation was over. Lexi looked over the screenshots, and tried to picture what descendants of the toons would look like. Had she and her team ever even seen them? And if so, how were they supposed to remember them? And how come not all of the Tunes were ancestors of any kind? As if it had become a tradition, Lexi's head started spinning, and this time, her eyes actually started rolling.

"Whooooaaaa…" she had to say out loud. "That's a bit too much information in one day…"

"Yeah, tell me about it," said Duck, who looked like he was still stuck thinking about Porky.

"And it's _still_ not over!" Gil exclaimed and expanded his arms. He threw them in Gus' direction, signaling him to change the television screen into something else. "Because we still haven't gotten a chance to look at _your_ ancestors!"

It wasn't until Gil said it that Lexi realized that he was absolutely right. After all this time, after all this rambling about toons, the Looney Tunes, and basically everything else that the brothers had mentioned, there still hadn't been a word about the Loonatics' ancestors. Lexi watched as Gus aimed the remote at the screen. The screenshots disappeared one by one in a similar fashion they had appeared. Gus then pushed a number of buttons on the remote, and in a matter of seconds, six more pictures appeared on the screen; only this time, they were moving, and they had sound. Lexi observed each of them, and unlike with the other ones, she immediately noted the similarities with the Tunes, and her team. However, Slam was the first one to go off about it. He grunted something, which Lexi could make out as: "Hey! Is that me?"

A brown, wild-looking Tasmanian devil was spinning around at rapid speed in one of the six frames on the screen. He stopped a couple of times to show off his large fangs and crazy eyes, only to go into a major rage fit shortly afterwards (Lexi assumed it had been triggered by a pray).

"Not at all, my dear Slam," said Gus. "This is Taz, one of the most recognizable toons of the twentieth century – well, at least the nineties, anyway. This guy was as mad as they could get, always looking for something to eat; which was usually a certain rabbit or duck. In the early days, he only got to be on five cartoon shorts, mostly because the directors had such a hard time controlling him. After all, he was a wild beast. But later on, he was given another chance, and was easier to direct."

Lexi could read from Slam's expression that he was astounded to see his ancestor in action, despite the fact that he had been out of control. Lexi didn't blame him. Knowing your roots, and thus your ancestors was probably very shocking.

Rev was the second one to speak. "Well, would you look at that? I think I see something I could be related to! Of course, I could be wrong, but then again, that blue bird is the only one who resembles me; am I right?"

The blue bird in question did indeed resemble Rev, in almost every way, in fact. Although he had more of a bird body structure, his long neck, legs and tail gave most away, as well as his feather color. His happy-go-lucky smile was almost contagious, and before Lexi could note more similarities between the two, the bird jumped in the air, stuck out his tongue, made a little car horn sound and dashed off.

"Rev, I'd like you to meet the Road Runner, the fasted bird in all the deserts of Texas, and then some," said Gil. "Never harmed, never tired, never sad, angry or anything. Just runs around the desert like there's nothing else to life. Sounds neat, huh?"

Like Slam, Rev was amazed to see his ancestor, even though the Road Runner didn't speak. To Lexi, it seemed as though Rev was comparing his ancestor to himself, and with each note, his beak formed a wider smile. "Wow…" he said on an exhale.

While Rev was seemingly drifting into his own little world, Tech's ears perked and he slowly raised a finger to point at one of the frames. "Wow, that guy looks so much like me, it's scary," he said.

And he was right. Lexi's eyes trailed from Rev to the screen again, and saw just what Tech was talking about. A long, brown, slim, sick, and sorry-looking coyote was desperately trying to catch up with the Road Runner, only to fail miserably by trying to jump him from behind, but ending up missing him, and thus plummeting down on the road. Tech watched in awe, and his jaw opened more and more as he did so.

"Wile Ethelbert Coyote," Gus said and smiled proudly, as if he was meeting a celebrity. "Man, what a toon he was. Poor guy was always hungry, though. I've been told that sometimes, the directors of the Road Runner/Coyote cartoons wouldn't feed him before shooting, just so they could catch his real hunger, and making his acting look more real." Gus turned to face Tech. "But you know what's amazing about him? He could take a thousand boulders, fall down hundreds of stories, be blown up, run over, crushed, smashed; you name it! And he would _always_, with no exceptions, be able to regenerate himself."

Tech watched his ancestor doing just that, as well as failing at catching the Road Runner every time. Lexi scanned his expression, but she wasn't sure if his shocked face was from astonishment, or from actual freaked out shock.

Suddenly, as if someone had just flicked a switch, a loud, high-pitched voice echoed in the room, and the Loonatics were forced to look away from Wile E.'s frame to another one. There, a black duck was going mental over a piece of treasure he had found.

"_Oh boy, I'm rich! I'm wealthy! I'm independent! I'm so silly secure! I'm rich! I'm rich! I'm _rich!!"

Duck's eyes bulged, and for a moment, Lexi wondered if they were trying to get out of his head. His bill flopped open, and he just stared at the screen with a dumbfounded expression.

"I'll bet you anything that you'll _never_ be able to guess whose ancestor _this_ guy is!" Gil shouted sarcastically, pinpointing at how obvious it was. "But in case you couldn't tell, this is Daffy Duck; Duck's ancestor in every single way. Well, minus the lisp, anyway."

Duck didn't make one sound, and his face didn't move – not even a tiny eye twitch was visible. Lexi looked at and listened to Daffy, and then back at Duck, and saw just how right the brothers had been when he had first spoken to them before. The attitude was _exactly_ the same, complete with the arrogant, selfish, spotlight-hungry personality. Even their voices sounded perfectly the same. In her mind, Lexi joked that if she were to meet the two of them together, she'd have a hard time figuring out who was who.

While Duck's expression remained the same, Lexi saw that Ace's eyes widened as he stared at one of the frames. In there was a skinny, grey bunny, munching on a carrot and leaning up against a tree.

"_Eh, what's up, doc?_"

"Right down to the accent…" Ace said quietly, almost in a whisper. The Warner brothers just smiled.

"Ace Bunny, meet Bugs Bunny," said Gus. "The biggest wise-ass in the history of cartoons. He's the one who was always tormenting poor Sam, Elmer, Marvin, and was even a trigger for jealousy with Daffy. His cocky, wisecracking personality was always his number one weapon against his enemies, and he would only resort to violence if personally attacked. Don't you find this totally awesome, Ace? You're a descendant of one of the most successful toons of all time!"

Indeed he did. Lexi could sense that Ace was trying to hide it, but he did a very poor job doing so. Being a descendant of such a toon as Bugs Bunny was probably the top of the moment for him, and his somewhat shocked face immediately morphed into the biggest, proud grin Lexi had ever seen.

Because everyone else seemed to love seeing their ancestors, Lexi decided to have a look at hers. She looked up at the screen where the animated frames were, and instantly discovered something that was odd about the six of them:

Bugs, Daffy, Taz, Wile E. and the Road Runner all had the same thing in common. They were all obviously animated by hand, and from the same era (Lexi guessed the period 1940-50, according to what the Warner brothers had told them earlier). However, the one girl toon on the screen was in a live-action environment, and unlike the boys, she was animated in three-dimension. Lexi looked up at the brothers with a raised eyebrow, and before she could even ask, they answered her question.

"This tremendous basketball-queen here would be Lola Bunny," Gil said to explain. "Unlike the rest of the Looney Tunes cast, she debuted in 1996, decades upon decades later than the originals." He paused to scratch his chin and roll his eyes upwards in thought, and then looked back at Lexi. "Remember when we told you that sometimes, as the years pass, female toons are created and put into the lives of the original male ones to spice them up a little?"

Lexi nodded. "Yeah, I think so."

"Well, Lola was one of them," Gil continued. "You see, the artists at WB had tried numerous times to create the right girl for Bugs, but they never felt that the ones they created were the right ones. Then in 1996, this live-action movie, _Space Jam_ premiered, and this new, hot love-interest for Bugs was introduced. Many just hid their faces in their palms, claiming that it was just another lame tryout. But what they didn't know was that the relationship between Bugs and Lola surpassed what we saw on-screen. It was one of _those_ relationships," he added, wiggling his eyebrows.

Lexi blushed a bit, and automatically glanced at Ace, noticing that he did the same thing. They looked at each other for the longest time, trying to understand the connection. If Bugs and Lola had had a real relationship, but were still Ace and Lexi's ancestors, did that mean that they were related? Sure, there were centuries of generations that separated them, but still, Lexi wasn't sure if she'd ever be able to look at Ace the same way again. After all, she had felt a little spark between them over the past few years…

"So, you've also made the connection between the rest of the cast, right?" Gus asked, snapping Lexi out of her thoughts.

"I think I have," Tech replied. "I examined each of the Tunes' looks, and the way you described them, and I think I may have the answer."

"The answer to what?" Duck lamely asked. "About who's whose ancestor?"

"Yes, that's right," said Tech. He looked at the brothers, and started counting with his fingers. "Mister Leghorn is the descendant of Foghorn Leghorn; Ophiuchus Sam is Yosemite Sam's; Pierre LePew is Pepé LePew's – how that's even possible, I don't want to find out; Gorlop the wrestler is Gossamer's; Tweetums is Tweety's; Queen Grannicus is Granny's; Sylth Vester is Sylvester's; Stomper and his mom are Slasher and his mom's; Electro Fudd is Elmer Fudd's; Melvin the Martian is Marvin's; Pork the Pug is Porky's; and Stoney and Bugsy are Rocky and Mugsy's."

The Warner brothers smiled at Tech. "That's our super genius!" Gil exclaimed, making Tech look very flattered. Although she didn't say anything, Lexi had basically made the same connection as well, but not as firmly as Tech.

"Now, obviously, since all of you guys are descendants of those toons, you weren't created in the Camerinat," said Gil. "I mean, sure. Many of the toons over the years have been like Lola: just thrown in there to match the characters; but the thing is, most of your forefathers and foremothers were born, and not created. Born with pure blood. Well, ink, actually." He smiled.

"So if you're wondering if all your memories and stuff were just put in your heads by some animator, you've got it all wrong," Gus added to make the point clearer, thus answering Lexi's inner questions from before.

After that, there was silence in the living room, and the Loonatics was certain that the brothers' speeches and rants were finally over. Gus turned the TV off, and put the remote back in its place on the coffee table. No one said a word, and Lexi wondered whether if it was because of the mental shock of seeing their ancestors, or if it was because everyone felt too awkward to start a conversation. Either way, Lexi used the opportunity to rest her eyes for a moment and leaned back in her chair.

--

While the Loonatics enjoyed the silence that had finally formed, another being far, far away was far from being relaxed or enjoying himself. He simply sat in his high chair, glaring at everyone and everything in sight. He clutched the chair's armrests. The time was about to come; he could feel it.

Turning the chair sharply, he shouted into the empty space, his loud, powerful voice echoing around the immense room. "_Get me Thinker and Belle!!_"

He turned around again, facing the red-painted window glass, his frown forming so many wrinkles on his forehead that he looked thirty years older than he really was. He heard the large doors creak open and without bothering to turn around, he addressed the ones who had arrived. "What do you know?"

Shakily, the two fairies replied at the same time. "I- it- it's all r- ready, sir! You and yo- your army can l- leave in the morning!"

He smirked mischievously, tapped his fingers together and cackled. "Excellent… We head for Acmetropolis as soon as the men are ready." He turned his chair around to face the fairies. "And do me a favor. Make sure that the duck gets an assignment. I'm afraid he's beginning to act more and more like his forefather than I feared he would…"

With that, the fairies saluted and flew off. The man smirked once more, and looked out the window. "I shall avenge you, my ancestors. You will not be sorry…"

* * *

_A/N: My best thanks to Tweeker515 for letting me use her ideas on the toon theoriy; how toons are made. It helped me a lot with this chapter 83_


	4. Eject, Ajaxian!

No matter what he did to the poor thing, it never seemed to experience any pain. Sure, it reacted to everything he made it do, but it always recovered seconds afterwards. He had done countless tests on it, just as he had done with his other mice, but this one was different. It always recovered even after the worst experiments. Even when he had snuck small iron particles in its food, it had just chewed on them like they were a part of its meal. Or the time he had zapped it with an electric shock; its fur turned ash-grey and stood on end, but it had merely shaken it off as if it had never happened. And not to mention when he had stretched out its limbs, and then dropped it to the floor but it hadn't died.

Yes, Kirk had always known the mouse was extraordinary, the way it looked was enough proof: its huge blue eyes instead of red, abnormally large red nose, and chubby snout gave most away. But if there was anything that made the mouse different from any being he had seen, it was the fact that it was able to communicate with him. The mouse could actually talk, laugh, shout, show emotions, and walk on its hind legs, as if it was a human being. Kirk had tried explaining this numerous times, but was always left with no results. Even his superiors were left dumbfounded when it came to analyzing the thing.

But still, despite the fact that the mouse was so astonishing, Kirk had found out over the years that it was a total numskull. The way it talked, its childish behavior, its random little exclamations… It all underlined that if it was human, it would've had the IQ of a sugar cube – that was for sure. And yet, Kirk wouldn't want it any other way; Jerry was the perfect lab mouse.

Like every night, Kirk was sitting in his lab, reading over his reports for the day. His one dream and goal had always been to become the greatest scientist ever to walk the face of the earth, and with a lab mouse like Jerry, he just _might_ be able to achieve it. He looked over to Jerry's cage, and as usual, he was just running in his exercise wheel. With his huge eyes, he looked up at Kirk and smiled in a silly way.

"Gee Kirk," he said in his goofy British accent. "What are you gonna do tonight?"

Kirk grinned at him, and with his own powerful voice, he replied. "The same thing I do every night, Jerry. Try to become the greatest scientist of all time!"

* * *

**Chapter 4 – Eject, Ajaxian!**

After everything that had happened before, Lexi was finally relaxed – mostly because she had managed to fall asleep for a few hours. She opened her eyes drowsily and rubbed her head. As she propped herself up with an elbow, she realized that she wasn't in the Warners' living room anymore. In fact, she was lying in a bed. A bed unlike any other she had ever seen. It was rectangular and made of wood, with only plain sheets covering it. Lexi sat up and ran her hand on the fabric, and felt that the mattress had a surface similar to an egg crate. Wow… Was everything in this house antique?

Lexi stood up from the bed and stretched before straightening her clothes and walking out of the room. She looked around and noticed that the bedroom she had been in was placed right next to the spot where the old desk was. To her right was another one, and to her left was seemingly a bathroom. Lexi carefully stepped out of the corner and into the long hallway of the house. She heard the boys talking in the kitchen and went inside.

There, Gus was showing Tech a little steel box which had a long cord attached to it. Lexi tilted her head, and saw that so did Tech. In the middle of the room, there was a round table, where the rest of the boys were sitting.

"Seriously? This is a toaster?" Lexi heard Tech ask as she sat down next to Ace. "This little box?"

"Oh, you'd better believe it, my boy!" said Gus and laughed as he turned around to point at the rest of the team. "In case you haven't noticed, your teammates are all eating the toast that came from it!" He turned back and smiled at Tech, who was still looking at the toaster in disbelief. "Ah, twentieth century technology… Gotta love it!" he added and finally sat down with the others. Tech examined the toaster for a few seconds before shaking his head and joining as well.

The eight of them all had their breakfast in Warner brothers style, as Lexi had now dubbed everything that was done like 800 years ago. There was a silence between them all, and even though they were eating (which would be considered a good enough excuse for the silence), Lexi felt sort of uncomfortable in it. Stillness kept creeping in on them, making even the tiniest munch or the littlest gulp sound like a small bomb. Lexi looked up from her toast and bit her lip awkwardly, begging whatever spirit that was in the house to make someone speak – she certainly couldn't think of anything to say.

Lexi's ears then perked to the sound of someone slamming a glass on the table. She turned her head slightly to see where the sound had come from, and was greeted by a lip-smacking Ace who apparently had eaten his filling. He heaved a sigh and then leaned back in his chair, arms behind his head.

"So what do you guys think of our ancestors?" he asked his team mates with his usual grin on his face. Good old Ace, always ready with a conversation. "Pretty cool being a descendant of someone so successful, eh?"

While chewing, Tech nodded and gave a small "Mhmm!" in agreement. He managed to swallow before he spoke. "Oh yeah! Well, maybe Bugs was a bit more successful than the others, but it's still interesting as heck to see how much we have in common with those guys!" he said, and Lexi could've sworn his tail had started wagging slightly.

"Bugs, schmugs!" Duck suddenly scoffed, batting both his hands as he did so. "He wouldn't have been booming if it hadn't been for Daffy! That duck saved his puny rabbit-butt's career!"

"You mean by constantly getting beaten up, shot, blown to pieces, crushed, and whatnot?" Ace asked smugly, making it difficult for Lexi to hold down a snort.

"Not just that, but also being his right-hand man all the time! _He_ was the main character in that comedy duo!" Duck proudly proclaimed, ignoring Ace's obvious pin-pointing. "You saw it all the time in those… what's-his-name's cartoons, didn't you?"

At that point, Lexi's ears perked again, and she sharply turned to Duck. "Wait- what? How do you know that?" she asked him a little harsher than she had intended.

Duck winced a bit and his proud posture slowly leaked down again. "Uhh… The old cartoons those guys were from?" he attempted. "You know, our- our ancestors, they were toons. Surely, they were in _cartoons_ too, right?"

"That's not what I meant," Lexi pouted and turned to the others. "Guys, how does Duck know that?"

Slam bit his tongue and rolled his eyes upwards innocently, slyly pointing at Tech who merely sighed. "Look, Lexi, here's the thing," he said, instantly giving in. "Last night, after you sat down on the sofa, you feel asleep like _this_," he snapped his fingers to underline the last word's effect, "so we moved you to the guest room. Then the brothers here figured that we could watch old Looney Tunes cartoons to pass the time." He let out a small laugh. "And I don't want to be mean, but I gotta tell you that we had a heck of a time doing it."

Lexi pouted, almost without knowing, and narrowed her eyebrows. "Oh, is that so? Well then, how come you didn't wake me up? Now I'm the only one who hasn't seen my ancestor in action." She paused, and then realized she could add more to that statement. "Actually, I'm the only one who hasn't seen _any_ of them in action!"

Feeling a hand on her shoulder, Lexi turned to Ace again, whose face screamed at her to chill. "Aw, c'mon, Lex," he said as kindly as his nasally voice let him. "It's not like it was just a one time thing – the brothers have all the cartoons on files!" He nodded in the Warners' direction. "And heck, they even have a whole bunch of collections. One by year, one by star toon, one by theme, one by director slash animator; it's amazing!"

"Yeah, and besides, we can all watch it again today!" Rev added with a wide grin, obviously excited to seeing the cartoons again. He then raised his arms in a half-shrug and added: "And hey, we haven't even watched the movies yet! That means none of us has seen Lola!"

Knowing that none of her teammates had seen her own ancestor, Lexi's mood brightened slightly, although she was still a little grumpy at them for not waking her up. **Who in their right mind just takes a sleeping person out of a room where they clearly want to stay in and join in what's about to happen?** Honestly! Lexi didn't even _want_ to know which part of the male brain caused them to be such doofuses.

As time passed, the Loonatics and the Warners all finished their breakfast one by one, and then parted to explore the Warners' house. Nothing was really happening in the town where the Loonatics were, and slowly, they each started wondering why the Warners had brought them there in the first place. Standing by a window and looking out to the streets, Lexi wondered that very thing. Sure, they had wanted to tell them about their ancestors and how successful they were, and just how alike they were, but was there anything else to it? Couldn't they have just told the team while still in Acmetropolis?

Lexi was driven away from her thoughts when she suddenly heard someone breathe very fast and hard, and turned her head. Rev was pacing in the hall, shaking a bit, looking like he had a huge desire to bite his non-visible nails. He kept looking out the window where Lexi was standing, and while pacing, he kept bolting towards the front door as if to run outside, but always backed out the last second. Tech was watching him, and after a few seconds finally decided to walk up to him.

Still pacing frantically, Rev barely noticed when Tech put one hand on his shoulder to stop him. When he felt the touch, however, he immediately halted and looked his friend in the eye. The rest of the team was now looking at the two, all of them asking Rev without words what was up with this sudden change of behavior.

"Rev, buddy, what's the matter?" Tech asked calmly. He took a closer look at the road runner in front of him, his eyes widening a bit. "I think your facial feathers are turning white. What's going on?"

Rev grabbed Tech's upper arms and pulled him closer, emphasizing his stress. Tech was taken aback, and let out a small yelp when this happened. Without taking a breath, Rev's words burst from his beak in streams, each sentence mixing in with the other. "Don't ya see, Tech? Here we are, all six of us, in some house with some guys we have no idea who are – well, now we kinda do, but that's beside the point – just because they wanted to tell us about our ancestors! Hasn't anyone noticed by now that we don't even know where we are, or how far away from Acmetropolis this place is? For all we know, this could be another planet! And- And while we're here, who knows what could be happening over in Acmetropolis? Maybe word has spread out that we're not there, and now all the criminals and bad guys are roaming free without anyone to stop them!"

It wasn't until that very moment that the Loonatics realized that Rev was right. In all the confusion and curiosity, they had all forgotten about their duties as Acmetropolis' saviors. Having burst like that, Rev calmed down a little, only to spread out his worries and stress to the rest of the team. Even Duck looked like he was bothered about leaving the city on its own. Ace slapped his own forehead.

"Ugh! How could we have been so stupid?" he cried, raising his hands to tug on his ears, but backed out the last second. He opened his eyes and looked at the Warners. "Even me! I was so busy wondering about what was with those hoodies, I forgot about protecting my own city!"

Gil and Gus both paled at hearing this, presumably because only now did they comprehend the situation. They looked at each other and bit their lips. "Er… We- well, look at the bright side!" said Gil, attempting to calm the Loonatics down, who were all frowning at them (Lexi could even hear Slam growl slightly). "You- You're still _on_ Acmetropolis! You're just not _in_ it!" He grinned stupidly, elbowing his brother to join him.

"Yeah! Yeah! That's right!" Gus continued, immediately understanding Gil's hint. He backed a bit, seeing that Tech took a step forward with a fierce look in his eyes. "You're not on another planet or anything! Heck, you're not even in another country!"

"Doesn't matter," said Ace, his forehead furrowed. "We know we're descendants of the Looney Tunes, we know we're toons, we've seen them in action – well, not all of us have," he added when he heard Lexi clear her throat beside him. "But still, we got the point. I mean, I know you're big fans of us and all, but still. You've said what you were gonna tell us. Now can you please take us home again? Who knows what could be going on over there? And we're over here, and know nothing about it."

--

The long rows of army troops marching down the long streets seemed to stomp the solid concrete to the point of making several cracks. Never in history of Ajaxian had anyone seen such a large army. Not since all those years ago, and that army had been at least three times smaller. People gazed at it, trailing their eyes from the front rows to the back, wondering just how long they were. Hundreds upon hundreds of soldiers of all kinds marching into dozens of spaceships, all equipped with identical weaponry. The soldiers themselves all proudly held their heads up high and chests out, making every person who saw them think that they were more than ready to go on this mission.

All except for one. Only one soldier looked like he had been pushed into the army against his own will. Not that more than less of the soldiers hadn't been pushed into the army, but at least they managed to hide it with dignity. Placed in the front part of the rows, he on the other hand unintentionally drew attention to himself as his rows walked by the people in town. His head was almost dug into his jacket, his shoulders raised as if to hide his identity. He kept feeling the weapons in his belt with shaking hands, not believing this was happening. Each time he did so, his flat bill quivered and his once soft and white feathers stood on end, his skin underneath tingling.

He had been given a special assignment in the mission, but he just knew he'd never be able to pull it off. How had he gotten the assignment then? Because he was a pushover, that's how. The fairies wouldn't take no for an answer like every other time, so it was obvious that his master was determined to have him along.

As his group of troops reached their ship, Derion heaved a sigh. He really didn't want to be there. Just by hearing the point of the mission, he knew he would die. No matter how well the army would do, no matter if they'd manage the mission, no matter if he'd do his assignment. Nothing mattered. He would die. He was sure of it.

Derion looked over at his partner, who grinned at him proudly. He wrapped an arm around his shoulders and punched him in the arm playfully.

"Cheer up, man!" he said, still grinning. "You're gonna nail this mission, Der! I just know it!"

Derion curled up in his seat, forgetting all about having to put on a safety belt. Despite the fact that his partner was so supportive and how he should've felt secure in such a big group, he couldn't help but feel even worse knowing that people were counting on him. Granted, he and his partner weren't exactly the best of friends, but they were close enough acquaintances to trust each other. And since Derion was relied on, he could feel the pressure piling up on his back.

Suddenly, the ship started moving, and it made Derion snap to his senses. He readjusted himself and strapped his seatbelt. Taking a deep breath, he dug his face in his palms, thinking about how badly this mission was going to end up. He would be on another planet. He would not be able to run away.

He would die.

--

"Look, you guys," Gil kept trying. "There's nothing to worry about! We should know too!"

"Yeah! We'd been snooping around the city for _days_!" Gus added, almost snatching his brother's last word. "Don't you think we didn't think this out first? Your enemies were becoming really ridiculous and easy to beat! We watched you in action!"

The Loonatics all prepared to defend themselves; Lexi was prepared with the excuse: _Yeah! But what if those times are over now, huh? What if the _real_ bad guys decide to come back when they find out we're not there? _Then_ what are we gonna do?_ But the brothers had already thought of more to add.

"It was so obvious how easy it was for you to beat them!" proclaimed Gil. "And it's not like they were that much of a threat to the city. If anything, they were more dirt-plagues than destruction-plagues! No worries!"

Lexi pouted at the Warners. She didn't do it because she was planning on giving a harsh remark, demanding to go home. She did it because the brothers were actually right. For the past few weeks, Acmetropolis had only suffered from one-shot monster attacks, nothing else. And they _had_ been pretty easy to beat, she had to admit. But Ace was far from accepting the brothers' reasoning.

"It doesn't matter, guys," he repeated, folding his arms. "Even if the monsters were easy and just a bunch pathetic one-shots, it could be that they were just warm-ups for something more powerful or sinister. So, sorry docs, but we're outta here. Come on, guys."

Ace then turned around to walk out on the brothers, signaling his teammates to follow him, which they all did eventually. The brothers clearly didn't want them to leave, though, and Gus actually sprung in front of the Loonatics to prevent them from leaving. He dashed towards the front door and spread his arms out to cover it.

"Please, Loonatics!" he begged. "This is the one day Gil and I have been waiting for all our lives! We don't want it to end on a stupid argument like this!"

"Well, maybe you should've thought of that before you went out and practically kidnapped us," said Ace, still frowning angrily. "Also, do you honestly think that we'll stay just because you're big fans of us?"

"Actually, you know, Lexi still hasn't seen _Space Jam_…" Gil sang teasingly, as if trying to persuade trick the Loonatics into staying a little longer.

Lexi did want to see _Space Jam_, oh how she wanted to see it, but now that Rev had brought light to another point of view, she thought it could wait. "Not gonna work," she said and joined Ace in folding her arms. "You could've just woken me up last night to show it to me."

The Warners both bit their lips. "Aw, come on, you guys!" Gus whined. "This isn't fair!"

"Neither is keeping us hostage!" Duck suddenly exclaimed. "Now will you just butt out of the way?"

Without hesitation, Duck stomped from the group and shoved Gus out of his way, making the path towards the door a lot easier for the rest of the team. As they walked outside, Lexi took a glance back at the brothers. Both their lips were quivering, and she could even see their eyes beginning to gloss a little. That sight immediately made her feel a bit bad for them. They _had_ just wanted to enlighten them about their ancestry, right? They hadn't meant any harm.

Before she could think of anything else that made the brothers look innocent and pure, Lexi snapped out of her thoughts as she bumped into Duck, who had all of a sudden come to an abrupt halt right outside the front door. Lexi adjusted her position and fixed her hair, mumbling grumpily at the black duck in front of her.

"Hey! What gives, Duck?" she exclaimed. "I thought we were gonna leave this place!"

Duck didn't reply right away. Instead, he slowly lifted a finger to point up at the sky. The other Loonatics, who had all gathered to see what was going on, followed his gesture and looked upwards, trying to spot what he was pointing at. As they did so, they realized that they didn't even have to look for it; it was right there, in the sky.

Dozens of spaceships, shuttles and other spacecrafts roaming towards the ground, their lights and bleeping sounds echoing in the atmosphere. They drew closer and closer every second, and even though they were obviously miles upon miles away, their combined air pressure blew heaving winds at the Warners' street. The Loonatics all gazed at them in astonishment. Where had they come from? Why were they here? And more importantly…

What was up with the big castle-like symbols on all the ships?


End file.
